Intro Cervantes and Picazo, Encarnacion de Diaz

My mother is an immigrant from Mexico who became a U.S. citizen; my father’s family all came from the New Mexico area and became citizens when the U.S. bought (or stole) the territories. So basically, all my ancestors were of Mexican descent.

I joined this research forum because of my interest in the area of Encarnacion de Diaz, Jalisco. My oral history indicated that my grandmother, Maria Cervantes, was born in Jalisco to parents, Modesto Cervantes & Petra Aguilera. Their respective parents were Quirino Cervantes and Maria Agatona Soto (or Agaton Escoto); and Geronimo Aguilera and Augustina Luevano. Maria reportedly had one brother, Desiderio and two half-siblings, Enrique and Maximiana. Ancestry.com shows that my grandfather, Filomeno Picazo, immigrated to the U.S. from Jalisco in 1915, and his brothers, Refugio and Nicolas immigrated in 1912 and 1917 respectively. From my mother’s baptismal record extracted from Jalisco in 1971, my great grandparents were Perfecto Picazo and Quirina Ferrel.

The LDS site has given me access to marriage records for Perfecto Picazo and a Quirina Gonzalez on 31 May 1876 in Encarnacion de Diaz. That marriage record indicates that Perfecto’s parents were Nicolas Picazo and Blaza de Anda, who were married in 1843 in Encarnacion de Diaz. Quirina Gonzalez’ parents were listed as Estanislao Gonzalez and Maria de la Merced Guzman. There is no further mention of Ferrel, so I don’t know where that names fits in. There is a marriage record for Geronimo Aguilera (b 1833 in Encarnacion de Diaz) and Augustina Luevano on 12 May 1858 in Aguascalientes. Petra was born in 1862 in El Senor Del Encino, Aguascalientes. There is one record for Quirino Cerbantes Peres (b 1834 Encarnacion de Diaz) that lists Gerardo Cerbantes and Rafaela Peres as his parents, but I do not know if those are the right ones. Names seem to change as I pursue records further back.

So far, my best results have come from the LDS Family Search site. I belong to Ancestry.com but their records are mostly European. Ancestry.com has been helpful in getting Census records of my father’s family up to the middle of the 1800s but the previous history must be in Catholic records, if they exist. I’ve also gotten DNA testing with the Family Tree DNA site, but even that has given limited information. If any of you have research that intersects with my surnames, I’ll be glad to exchange information.